Days between working out?

My highschool gym teacher said that you should only do work outs every other day, because it breaks down your muscle, and rebuilds it (or something). Is this true, or should I disregard this rule?

Very true, rest is essential to build muscle fast.

That's what i do, but i read recently that you can work out every day, just target a different area than what you did the day before.

Example, Monday i'll train shoulders, biceps and triceps, Tuesday i'll do chest, core and cardio, Wednesday back to what i did on Monday, and so on.

The time when your body gets stronger is the days between workout days. Working out tears down your muscles, and as your body rebuilds your muscles, that's when it gets stronger. Working out the same muscles every day is counterproductive.

The reason steroids are effective isn't because they are magic pills that make your muscle grow upon ingestion. It's because they allow your body to recover faster which means 1) muscle is rebuilt more quickly and 2) you can work out more often since recovery time is shortened.

1. He is right.

2. Whatever part of you body you worked out, you rest it for a day. (example: you worked out biceps on Monday, rest biceps on Tuesday, work them out Wednesday, rest them Thursday,etc.)

3. Muscle need to be torn and worn out. When you work out (example biceps) by doing bicep curls, you are tearing your bicep muscles and then the next day when you rest them, your body repairs them and reinforces. The end result is your muscle becomes stronger over time. (Example: you decided to build your own trampoline and one day when playing on it, one of the springs snaps, so you take it back to your workshop and add extra springs so it can hold more weight.)

4. 4 days a week of working out is fine. A very very simple solution is to alternate which part of the body you work on, for example: upper body Mondays and Thursdays. Lower body Tuesdays and Fridays. It's common to switch off between lower and upper body, although you can target certain muscle groups. I'm not your coach though, what you do is up to you.

Yeah that's right. Even so, I target a different area every other day.

I give myself a day between workouts.

I alternate between strength and cardio each day, although I'm going more for weight loss and toning at the moment than muscle building. Getting enough rest is very important though.

You can workout everyday but make sure you work a different muscle group every day. Give 24-48 hours of rest time for your muscles to recover, especially your bigger ones. (ie. your quads, glutes, etc. usually take more time to recover hence why squats and leg workouts make you sweat so much and sore afterwards).

well are you just a beginner? Or do you have experience? Rest is very important but you don't have to limit your routine to every other day. Due to college and work i work out 4 days straight Monday-Thursday. And rest the weekend. We should make a post your routine Thread.

[size=11]
I do workout-rest day-by-day interval since I have school and stuff. It really depends on the schedule and if you're motivated.
[/h]

Yeah it's true. I work out every other day. I work out 3 times a week spread out.

I work out 3-4 days a week. I play racquetball for 1hr and 30min, before that I have a warm up of 10-15 minutes. I've lost 23 puonds since mid September when I was told I had diabetes. I control my blood sugar with diet and exercise. I used to weigh 371 lbs, I am at 348 lbs.

back at the beginning of last year I was pretty sick and I dropped down to about 115 lbs pretty underweight... but around may or so I started working out and taking protein supplements pre and post workout drinks and I've put on 30 lbs of muscle and my fat % is down at 4.4%
I work out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every week usually I do biceps and triceps on monday shoulders and legs on wednesday and chest and back on friday. I do core after every workout and cardio on off days. also I change up my workout every 2 to 3 weeks so I don't get to used to the workout and tada strong lean muscles...

Yes it's true, but you can work different areas and work on cardio.

It simply depends on the kind of "work out" you are doing. In the case of running, jogging, biking, etc. it would probably be to your benefit to continue it for consecutive days (maybe around 3 or 4) but it is important you don't go too hard consecutively; the days between should be "easy" days and be not too strenuous. In the case of weightlifting, yes, it is important to let the muscles being worked out rest. In fact, it is highly recommended you rest them for 2 days instead of just one. During the "rest" days for your muscles that were worked out the day before, you should switch off with another group of muscles. For example, one day you'd work your upper body. The next day you should then work your legs and so on.

There should be a resting period of 1 day between the days you lift weights, so that your muscles do have a chance to properly heal. Remember when you are lifting weights, you are actually tearing the muscle fibers, and if they do not heal, your muscles will have no chance to actually grow back bigger.

It depends on the way you train.

If you're training to make strength gains, training Mon-Fri with the weekend off is perfect. Take a whole week off every 2 months.

If you're focussed on training to make your muscles grow larger, training 6 days a week would give the best results. Take a whole week off every 3 weeks.

It doesn't matter much if you're just starting out, the stress you put on your muscles are pretty insignificant, it will just be a pain in the ass to work through the soreness during the first few weeks.

People can misinterpret what you are saying as, its okay to work the same muscle groups on a daily basis for 5-6 days a week, and you really should not do that. Your muscles *need* time to rest, at least a day, between working them out again. If you are working totally different muscle groups each day, then I suppose you can do back to back days, but personally I like resting 1 day between lifting days (on that rest day you can do cardio and the like).

I agree that in most cases, you shouldn't workout the same muscle groups on back to back days (you can do the same workout twice a day for better results if you really knew what you were doing). But, the op just asked for general working out which is why I responded the way I did.

Also @ the op, don't do any kind of high intensity cardio if you're working out to build muscle/strength. Your target progress be slower and you will hit a plateau much faster on your routine if you do.